Knick-Knack Kerouac

Give this dog a bone, cause this old cardigan is rolling home. There’s naught left to knit but the sleeves and button band/collar.

I’ve managed to complete the body of the sweater. Both of the fronts are now done, although I’m not entirely clear that I did it correctly. I was almost done with the right front part of the sweater, when I consulted a cryptic note that I’d made after completing the left front part of the sweater, reminding me where to begin a certain decrease. I was already well past that point, and by now I couldn’t see the logic of the original instructions – it had just been too long since I’d written it down. But I ripped back and followed my notes, and holding everything together, it appears I did the right thing. I’m just not sure how.

For something that looks so simple, I’ve had a dickens of a time trying to parse out the instructions. They’re quite clear, but the manner in which they are written doesn’t mesh well with the way my brain works. I kept forgetting that binding-off and decreasing, while having the same effect of narrowing fabric, are not the same thing at all.

I had to draw little diagrams for each row, keeping track of the binding off and the decreasing and all the various knitterly activities that I was instructed to undertake AT THE SAME TIME. These words are written in all caps to draw the knitter’s attention to them, but the my state of mind conjures up visions of someone leaning over my should and shouting those words at me. I’m not in any way faulting the designer for this – it’s just the state I’m in, I suppose.

But I’ve started the sleeves, and I’m feeling better about the whole thing.